April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, until now this year’s
most bullish of 44 oil-price forecasters, cut its predictions
for Brent and WTI crude, citing fewer supply threats.

West Texas Intermediate crude will average $95 a barrel
this year, compared with a previous estimate of $108, Barclays
said in an e-mailed report. Brent, the benchmark grade for more
than half the world’s oil, will average $112 a barrel, down from
$125, the highest of all analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg
before today. Brent traded at about $108.41 a barrel on the ICE
Futures Europe exchange at 4:50 p.m. in London, while WTI was at
$95.42 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent prices fell today even after Libya’s state-run
National Oil Corp. said that an explosion hit Zueitina Oil Co.’s
crude and condensate pipelines yesterday, while the main rebel
group in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger River delta said it’s resuming
assaults on Africa’s biggest petroleum industry.

“These temporary dislocations will always be there,”
Miswin Mahesh, Barclay’s oil analyst in London, said by phone.
“Given the way we see the markets develop in the second and
third quarters, demand is increasing, but supply is also
increasing to meet these requirements.

‘‘You’ve got additional Angolan barrels coming into the
market, Russia is supplying new volumes from its new ESPO
pipeline in Asia, the North Sea looks fairly stable at the
moment in terms of supply,’’ he said. ‘‘All of these offsets
together make it a very balanced market.’’

Crude prices have retreated about 8 percent from this
year’s peak, reached in early February, amid easing concern that
tension between western governments and Iran over the Persian
Gulf country’s nuclear program will result in a wider conflict
that would disrupt oil exports from the Middle East.